…and Don Miguel Ruiz. I’ve now been living my life for many years by following Ruiz’s Four Agreements. First published in 1997, this book helped me to reinforce the logic and way of thinking I’d been developing through my own maturity and put it into four simple concepts that I could follow for life.

Agreement 1Be impeccable with your word – Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Agreement 2Don’t take anything personally – Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Agreement 3Don’t make assumptions – Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Agreement 4Always do your best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

And another person who appears to live his life according to the same or similar philosophy is Tim Minchin. Today I discovered his newly animated beat-poem called Storm. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I had a little nap after work, and when I awoke, I found myself covered in rashers. On the news they showed up the phone number for the Swine Flu information line, so I rang them up to get some advice. Problem was I couldn’t make out a word they were saying. All I heard was crackling.

In early 2007, I discovered an amazingly-constructed video on YouTube by Dr Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The title of his video is “The Machine is Us/ing Us” and in under 5 minutes he managed to grab my attention like nothing else in recent times. If you’ve never seen this video, you really must- but you also must concentrate on it for full effect.

I’ve spent way too long at goofingoff.com – I have to finish that report I’m supposed to be doing. Let’s see. The eleven major Ad Valorem rates reduced to Central Excise of 16%, Merit Rate of 8% and Demerit Rate of 24%.[You have new mail]. What? I don’t have time for this! It’s from Jerry. [Subject: You gotta see this!]. I don’t have time now Jerry! My God! How many times has this been forwarded before it got to me? Bwahaha! That’s so cool! I have to forward this to the rest of the accounts team!

December 12, 2006: GOOGLE releases an add-on to Google Earth in an attempt to reverse the damage it has done to millions of children around the world. But instead of reigniting children’s belief in Santa, it has effectively provided a fatal blow that will resonate in the ears and minds of our now scarred youth.